A Lot Of Responsibility To Go Around

Who bears the blame? We never know the unintended consequences we set in place through our actions.

A line can be drawn between the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson to the deliberate murder of two New York police officers almost five months later. The line includes the grand jury decision, protest marches and every media commentary in between. Each had an influence, good or bad, with no clue for the possible consequences. We have no idea how it will end.

But the line goes back further. It extends to the killing of Trayvon Martin, but doesn’t start there. It includes feelings of anger nourished by our political machine and a heartless media. An entertainment culture obsessed with violence. The hampering of race relations by individuals who stubbornly hold prejudices without regard for the future.

It includes legal segregation and thousands of lynchings. All the choices of society in shaping children’s minds. Suspicious looks for no reason. The fad of looking dangerous.

We constantly stand at a crossroads where things can improve. We can stop, learn and make things better. Or take the sickly, cowardly path of denial and blaming others. The truth is, we all share guilt, if only for ignoring the needs of others. Nothing will be solved -- nothing -- until we start living up to our responsibility.